1. The research for this article was conducted in 1999 and 2000 with funding from the Social Science Research Council and Fulbright-Hays. The piece also draws on earlier trips to coastal Sulawesi and its environs: in 1990 as a Watson Foundation Fellow, in 1994 with support from the Association for Asian Studies’ Southeast Asia Council grants for isolated scholars—funded by the Luce Foundation—and in 1995 with a research grant from the Center for Business, Education and Research at the University of Southern California. I thank the Sama people on the east coast of Southeast Sulawesi, on islands in the Flores Sea, in the Gulf of Boné, and above all in the Straits of Tiworo for their patience and generosity over the years. I am grateful to Stuart Kirsch for his comments and suggestions. Any shortcomings of the article are borne only by me.